round nine - race two
Assen, Holland - Sunday, 4 September 2005

VERMEULEN DOUBLE PAINTS ASSEN BLUE

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Chris Vermeulen achieved his second World Superbike
double by winning the second race in this afternoon's ninth round at Assen in
Holland. The Australian enjoyed a fierce on-track battle with Japan's Noriyuki
Haga, who finished second in the 16-lap race ahead of British rider James
Toseland. Vermeulen's team-mate Karl Muggeridge finished in eighth place.

Starting from pole position, Vermeulen found himself in seventh place at the
start of the race but fought his way past the leading riders to take the lead on
lap eight. Haga had other ideas, however, and grabbed the lead back from
Vermeulen with three laps to go but had to settle for second place after a bold
passing manoeuvre from the Winston rider on the penultimate lap.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"The blue colours of our sponsor, Winston, and the WinWin logo were especially
accurate today and Chris's double is the icing on the cake of our World
Supersport championship win here at Assen. But I think the real winners here
today were the crowd who enjoyed some really spectacular racing. Haga was all
over Chris at times in that race but Chris managed to find something extra at
the end for our first double of the season. It's a pity for Karl who had some
more problems in race two but we enjoyed a good test at Lausitzring recently so
I hope we can find something for him there. It's a bit of a dream to have a day
like this at our home round but we have to concentrate on Lausitzring next
weekend. The championship is still a possibility for Chris and, after a couple
of beers tonight, we'll be back at work tomorrow.

Chris Vermeulen - winner

"Yeah, that feels pretty good. I'm really happy for the whole team who worked so
hard this weekend and wrapped up the World Supersport championship here today.
It's fantastic to do my first double of the year in front of the Dutch crowd and
all the team's guests. That second race was much harder than the first though -
I didn't help myself at the start by nearly running off the track at turn one
but I couldn't fault the bike today because it just felt great. Nori (Haga) rode
a fantastic race this afternoon and it's always great fun battling with him -
always really close but we never touch. I managed to close the gap a little on
Troy (Corser) today but he's still a long way ahead, so I need two more wins
next weekend."

Karl Muggeridge - eighth

"I felt pretty good for race two and the bike was working well but just lost
rear grip from the first lap. I really don't understand it and it's pretty
frustrating because it's been getting better all through the weekend and the
team deserved some better results today. With the rear gone, it was really only
the front tyre that was keeping me in there. I'm happy for Chris but need some
solid results myself at Lausitzring next weekend." 

World Superbike, Assen - race two results (16 laps, 95.952km):

 1 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  33m34.053s
 2 Noriyuki Haga JPN (Yamaha)                       +0.085s
 3 James Toseland GBR (Ducati)                      +3.318
 4 Troy Corser AUS (Suzuki)                         +5.938
 5 Andrew Pitt AUS (Yamaha)                         +6.394
 6 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA (Ducati)                      +16.480
 7 Max Neukirchner GER (Honda)                     +17.255
 8 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)    +22.338
 9 Norick Abe JPN (Yamaha)                         +30.801
10 Ben Bostrom USA (Honda)                         +34.071

Championship points after nine of 12 rounds:

Corser               370
Vermeulen            284
Regis Laconi         214 FRA (Ducati)
Haga                 203
Toseland             197
Yukio Kagayama       187 JPN (Suzuki)
Chris Walker         130 GBR (Kawasaki)
Pierfrancesco Chili  119 ITA (Honda)
Pitt                 117
Muggeridge           100

Next round:

11 September - Lausitzring, Germany